A primary purpose of this proposed project is to undertake the third wave of a longitudinal study of the health care and social service needs of noninstitutionalized elders in the Massachusetts Health Care Panel Study. A statewide area probability study of 1,625 people over age 65 responded in the first wave in 1975 (a 79 percent response rate), 1,317 responded in the second wave 15 months later (an 89 percent response rate), and approximately 900 to 1,000 respondents are anticipated for the third wave which will be five years after the first wave. Contact has been maintained with this panel of elders (now aged 70 years or more for the third wave) during the interim. A combination personal and telephone interviewing is proposed. The results of the third wave survey can be used to assess the longer term (five year) stability of a quantitative information base which has been used extensively for program planning of home based support services in Massachusetts. A longitudinal data base also provides the only means of assessing the rate and degree with which elders become successively more functionally dependent over time, and the degree to which the provision of home based support services might retard the natural transition rates to greater dependency. This longitudinal study can also determine whether information concerning health and social service needs reported at one point in time can be statistically and practically predictive of mortality within five years for elders.